Development of a hybrid vehicle or an electric car capable of running with electric power supplied from a power supply outside the vehicle has attracted attention in recent years. Such a vehicle is also called a plug-in vehicle, and it aims to improve fuel efficiency, to suppress exhaust gas and to improve user's convenience by storing as much electric power as possible from the power supply outside the vehicle and running with the stored electric power. A technique relating to control of charging of such a vehicle is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 9-322313 (Patent Document 1) and Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2000-115901 (Patent Document 2).
In addition, a system in which a position of a momentary shift lever operated by a user is detected and a control state of a transmission mechanism is changed in accordance with a detected lever position under electrical control (a shift-by-wire system) is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2008-51255 (Patent Document 3).    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 9-322313    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2000-115901    Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2008-51255